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Savannah Chatham Animal Control Shelter cited for violating state rules

Local professionals call shelter's care "inhumane"

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Guinn Friedman, Director of Operations, vaccinates a cat as Animal Control Officer Christina Suterin and Sherry Montgomery bring in more to be checked in Friday afternoon at to the Humane Society of Greater Savannah.

Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News Cats wait to be processed after being delivered to the Humane Society of Greater Savannah Friday afternoon. Animal Control Officer Christina Sutherin delevered about 18 cats to the shelter.

The county-funded Savannah Chatham Animal Control Shelter was found to have repeatedly violated animal protection requirements in two state inspections last month, and its practices are being criticized as inhumane by four local animal professionals.

Douglas, a veterinarian, recently pulled her license from the facility.

County officials say they’ve addressed the inspection problems and are making plans to improve the shelter long-term, including the six-month hiring of a part-time veterinarian approved by the Chatham County Commission Friday.

At that same meeting both County Manager Russ Abolt and Chairman Pete Liakakis praised the shelter, its employees and volunteers, saying the veterinarian pilot program will further the board’s goal of reducing the number of animals it euthanizes by ensuring the health of animals available for adoption.

“That’s will be what in my words creates a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” Russ Abolt said. “The shelter can move more pets out of harm’s way, out of the specter of euthanasia and getting them adopted out.” Before the county’s new facility opened, euthanasia of dogs and cats averaged about 4,000 annually. Since then it’s dropped about 50 percent, a memo provided to the commissioners indicated.

Animal professionals including Douglas laud the goal of less euthanasia, but say it’s not being pursued in a systematic and humane manner.

“Animals held for adoption take cage space and inhibit the functioning of the animal control shelter,” Douglas wrote in an affidavit she submitted to the county. “Basic animal care is not being provided to an acceptable standard due to the problem of overcrowding.”

More veterinary care is part of the answer, Douglas said; she had recommended a full-time veterinarian. But also needed is a larger staff to provide basic cleaning and feeding.

Liakakis said in the meeting better staffing will be addressed in the future.

In September, the Georgia Department of Agriculture cited the shelter for failing to keep adequate records and housing diseased animals with healthy, adoptable ones. The two-year-old, $2.5 million county-funded facility on Sallie Mood Drive was also cited for cracks in cage floors and peeling paint in cages. Although staffed by the Savannah-Chatham police department, the facility is wholly funded by Chatham County.

“Sick animals should be housed separately in such a manner as to reduce the spread of communicable and/or infectious disease,” inspector Scott Sell wrote in his report.

Calling the facility “a jewel,” Russ Abolt said the only outstanding issues raised by the Department of Agriculture were structural ones. Expansion joints in some cages opened too far as the building settled. The contractor has agreed to take care of the problem and in the meantime the Department of Agriculture will lend the county a mobile shelter unit to house the animals in the affected cages.

Drug license pulled

In a move unrelated to the inspections, Douglas revoked her authority for the facility to use or obtain drugs under her Drug Enforcement Agency license.

Douglas said she was compelled to act after she witnessed drugs obtained under her license being dispensed without her knowledge or approval, which is illegal.

In August she stopped by the shelter to examine a kitten that staffers suspected had a broken bone. While there she noticed a puppy on an intravenous line. The dog was being treated for infectious parvovirus using drugs purchased under Douglas’s license. But another veterinarian had authorized the treatment.

“Even under veterinary supervision, treatment of parvovirus within a shelter is a risky venture,” Douglas wrote in a letter explaining her license revocation. “Without proper isolation and disinfection protocol, the disease can easily be transmitted to other animals in the shelter.”

In the sworn affidavit, Douglas detailed numerous other problems at the county facility, painting a picture of a dirty, overcrowded facility where nationally accepted standards of operation weren’t consistently followed.

Douglas provided veterinary services to shelter animals on an as-needed basis, first through VCA Animal Hospital where she began work in 2003 and then at her own practice, Berwick Animal Hospital, but there previously has not been an in-house veterinarian for the shelter.

Animal pros still have issues

Douglas offered to continue providing services to the shelter, but Russ Abolt dismissed her during an in-person meeting she attended with him and other county officials in September.

“Her issue is certain things she witnessed,” he said Thursday, referring to her affidavit. “We have different opinions.”

Russ Abolt offered letters from two veterinarians who assisted the shelter to balance Douglas’s view.

Dr. Karen Gold wrote that she has seen “no mistreatment of any animal or abuse of drugs or other medications on the premises.” She went on to write that the number of animals passing through has increased during her two years of volunteering and that the staff does a good job “given the resources that they have.” Her letter was received by the county Sept. 21.

“They are stretched thin as it is on a regular basis,” she wrote.

Dr. Beth Martin wrote on Sept. 25 that she had assisted at the shelter for a year and a half.

“At no time has there been intentional neglect, abuse, physical harm to any animaly.”

Douglas, however, isn’t alone in her concerns. A veterinarian colleague, along with the director of the nearby Humane Society for Greater Savannah and an Armstrong psychology professor with expertise in animal behavior, have all weighed in on the shelter’s shortcomings.

Like Douglas, Dr. Neely North, who works with Douglas at Berwick Animal Hospital, compiled her concerns in a sworn affidavit also presented to the county.

In it she cites cases of sick pets that were adopted out of the shelter, including some with heartworm; a dog that injured its cage-mate at Animal Control; others that developed illness at the shelter; and dangerous dogs in the public viewing area. She also witnessed animals adopted from the shelter without being neutered.

“Several animals have returned at a later date still intact with no follow up from the shelter for spaying or neutering,” she wrote.

Lynn Gensamer, executive director of the Humane Society for Greater Savannah, said she’s most concerned about disease and animal welfare at the shelter.

“We’re not able to help as much as we’d like because we can’t risk introducing sick animals into our facility,” she said. “The conditions are not humane for the animals. They’re due to the overpopulation at the shelter and the overall management of the numbers of animals that are housed there.”

It affects her facility: On Friday, Animal Control brought to the Humane Society 18 cats its officers had retrieved from the home of a hoarder who was forced to relocate.

“A lot of this is because they’re full and not managing the herds they have,” Gensamer said.

And she wants them to screen both adopters and pets better.

“We know somebody whose adopted dog had a litter three days after they adopted it,” she said. “She ended up finding homes for nine puppies.”

Even animals in good physical shape can be traumatized by the long stays in cages she’s seen as a volunteer at the shelter, said Angie Koban, an assistant professor of psychology at Armstrong Atlantic State University.

“I have observed behaviors in these animals that reflect anxiety, stress, depression and suffering. If animals are going to be kept at the shelter long-term, they should be provided with daily mental and physical simulation,” she wrote in a detailed seven-page email.

“No protocols exist to guide staff decisions on euthanasia etc. based on not only the physical health of the animals, but their mental health as well,” she wrote.

At Animal Control, pregnant dogs are often exempt from the euthanasia protocol and allowed to deliver and raise their puppies in the shelter, North wrote.

“Puppies are unable to be kept clean in such an environment and stand in feces- and urine-soiled runs. The area of the shelter that was designed as an isolation ward is called the ‘maternity ward’ and is where these mothers and their litters are kept,” North wrote.

Lines of authority

Animal Control houses animals adoptable through the rescue agencies Pound Puppies and FACTS, or Friends of Animal Control Team Savannah, founded by Diane Abolt, wife of county manager Russ Abolt.

One of the FACTS dogs was held for more than two years, Douglas stated. She’s had to euthanize other younger, more adoptable animals because of the overcrowding exacerbated by this and other long-term stays, Douglas said.

The rescue groups’ apparent impact on record-keeping caught the attention of the Agriculture Department inspector.

On Sept. 13, Sell noted that a card on cage number 31 identified the occupant only as “Diane’s cat Siamese/male.” A dozen other data fields, including ones pertaining to dates and medical care, were left blank. On a return visit the following week he found the same card reading “Diane’s cats x 3,” prompting him to cite the shelter for “willful disregard.”

In his comments on a Sept. 5 inspection he wrote: “It was also observed that some of the kennels were tagged with the names of some of the local rescue organizations. I asked about this and it was relayed to me that some of the organizations tag some of the animals as theirs and place the animals under their license — also receiving the adoption fees. The holding period set by the county allegedly does not apply to these animals and some may stay housed in the shelter for extended periods of time.”

In Friday’s meeting, both Liakakis and Russ Abolt called special attention to Diane Abolt’s efforts. The nonprofit FACTS provides shelter animals with about $3,000 to $5,000 worth of medications and testing per month.

“She’s the Mother Teresa of dogs and cats,” Russ Abolt said.

Both Diane and Russ Abolt rejected the idea that she has undue influence over staff decisions.

Diane Abolt said she offers her opinion about the adoptability of animals, but doesn’t have the decision-making authority about euthanasia.

“I definitely wouldn’t even want that responsibility,” she said.

But Douglas, who said Diane Abolt was the “ultimate end-all and be-all of who gets euthanized at the shelter,” felt she had no place to bring her concerns and be impartially heard.

“To me that was the biggest conflict of interest,” she said. “I didn’t understand why I was in the meeting with Mr. Abolt when it was such an obvious conflict of interest that his wife was involved here.”